


Sunnydale-Upon-Avon, or the use of Shakespeare in the Whedonverse

by beer_good



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, SHAKESPEARE William - Works
Genre: Gen, Meta, References to Shakespeare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 14:58:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6859687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beer_good/pseuds/beer_good
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joss likes Shakespeare. This would be obvious even if we didn't know that he, for instance, used to hold Shakespeare readings at his house for the Buffy cast; there's quite a lot of allusions to Shakespeare in his stories, both explicit and implicit ones. Is this just gratuitous fanboying by Joss, or is there a point to it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunnydale-Upon-Avon, or the use of Shakespeare in the Whedonverse

Joss likes Shakespeare. This would be obvious even if we didn't know that he, for instance, used to hold Shakespeare readings at his house for the _Buffy_ cast; there's quite a lot of allusions to Shakespeare in his stories, both explicit and implicit ones. This obviously won't be a complete list of all parallels between Shakespeare and Whedon, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone points out that Joss references a bunch of plays I don't even mention here. (I've read _Troilus and Cressida_ and _A Winter's Tale_ , but I'll be damned if I remember them in any detail. So if you've got one that I don't mention here, by all means feel free to comment. Also, a couple of these were pointed out by friends of mine, so credit to them if they read this.) The objective is just to point out a few of the more obvious references, how and why they work, and perhaps in a larger sense why a storyteller would use references to something else rather than come up with a brand new story. 

This gets long, and covers spoilers for all of the Jossverse (as of 2009) and Shakespeareverse (as if anyone doesn't know how his plays end).

Obviously, just about anyone can drop Shakespeare references to look cultured. As well-known as Shakespeare's most well-known quotes and plots are, you don't even really need to have read or seen any of them; just have a character quote some famous Shakespeare line for no particular reason and be done with it. And there are a few like that in the Buffyverse; Xander's "Friends? Romans? Anyone?" in "Normal Again", or his "once more unto the breach" in "All the Way" (although the latter sets up one of Buffy's better puns). But IMO it's obvious that Whedon is influenced by Shakespeare in more than just the cultural osmosis sense, though; as storytellers, they're really rather similar (whether they are equally _good_ is, of course, a different matter). Both have the same love for inventive wordplay, double meanings and groan-inducing puns, the same favourite subjects, the same command of both romantic comedy and dark drama, and the sneaky way of using humour to undercut and enhance drama... and, on a perhaps less flattering note, the same blatant disregard for things like correct geography and history ( _Hamlet_ supposedly takes place in 7th century Denmark... riiight). The play's the thing, and if you have to change a few details to get the proper reaction out of your audience, then so be it. Not to mention that they both have the same tendency to borrow plots, plot devices and characters from older works if they think they can put a different spin on them, and then re-use them as often as they can get away with. Which, to the more-than-casual fan, might occasionally be once or twice to often.

_You see, basically Shakespeare was a formula writer. Once he found a device that worked, he used it over and over and over again. So, mister Shakespeare, the question we have is this: why did you write SIXTEEN comedies when you could have written just ONE? ("The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)")_

Of course, when Joss does it, it's called "post-modernism", so that's OK. And Shakespeare predates copyright laws, so that's OK too. But there's more to it than simple theft; like Shakespeare, Joss plays off older stories (by no means limited to Shakespeare) to achieve a certain effect. For various reasons, Shakespeare has become – especially in Anglophone countries – one of the touchstones of both literature and language; the man supposedly invented or popularised over 2000 words and dozens of phrases, and while he didn't _invent_ all of the basic plots, his versions of them have – partly because they're good, and partly because they're popular – become the versions that everyone refers back to. That a lot of them (though not all) are still played (and played with) regularly today isn't just because everyone has been taught that Shakespeare is the greatest playwrite of all time TM, but because they still work - the corruptive nature of power isn't an interesting theme because Shakespeare wrote _~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play_ , but _~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play_ is still an interesting play because the theme is still valid.

For starters, let's cover some basic stuff. Such as character names:

Cordelia is a character in _King Lear_. She's her father's favourite and every young man's dream girl, but loses her inheritance and has to leave her home and go into exile down south, where she joins up with a powerful man, fights bravely but dies off-screen in the last act. Just sayin'.

The shrew in _The Taming of the Shrew_ is called Kate. I doubt detective Lockley would have appreciated me mentioning this. But it's just a coincidence anyway.

Illyria is an actual historical city, and of course it's possible that's where they got the name. But it also turns up in Shakespeare's _Twelfth Night_ , a comedy of mistaken identities.

_VIOLA: What country, friends, is this?_   
_CAPTAIN: This is Illyria, lady._   
_VIOLA: And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium. Perchance he is not drown'd: what think you, sailors? ("Twelfth Night")_

...in short, "What good does Illyria do me when the one I'm looking for is dead?"

There's at least one major Shakespeare reference in _Firefly_ too. Miranda, the supposed utopia of _Serenity_ , gets its name from "The Tempest."

_MIRANDA: O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in't! ("The Tempest")_

...which also turns up in _Buffy_ :

_ANYANKA: I had no idea her wish would be so exciting! Brave New World. I hope she likes it. ("The Wish")_

Oh, and here's something nifty; because Shakespeare is so influential, phrases he made up (or made popular) pop up all over the English language, which in this case makes this a _double_ reference; Anyanka's not only referring to Shakespeare, but also to Aldous Huxley's _Brave New World_ \- which is pretty much the same plot as _Serenity_ or the whole Jasmine thing on _Angel_ ; is a world where everyone is perfectly happy through outside influence but there's no free will a dystopia or a utopia? "The Wish" asks that question too, although it gives a much more simplistic answer.

_ANYANKA: You trusting fool! How do you know the other world is any better than this?  
GILES: Because it has to be. ("The Wish")_

_ARCHDUKE SEBASSIS: Ah. Well, what's in a name, eh? ("Power Play")_

Looks like we're past the simple issues of names, so let's get on with the character stuff. Joss, even more than Shakespeare, likes using villains that have motivations going beyond crush-kill-destroy – villains that might, under different circumstances, have turned out heroes. (Or the other way around.)

_BUFFY: You can't love without a soul.  
DRUSILLA: Oh, we can, you know. We can love quite well. If not wisely. ("Crush")_

_OTHELLO: Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice: then you must speak of one that loved not wisely, but too well. ("Othello")_

Othello's colour, like Drusilla's, is black, darkness, grief – and madness. They're both tragedies, they're both victims who in turn become murderers, they both end up losing the ones they hold dear. And it's interesting that it's not just David Fury who's comparing her to Othello, Drusilla sees the similarity herself and explicitly compares herself to the Moor who killed his love, acknowledging what she's done.

Speaking of Othello, Buffy's whole discussion on "Othello" in "Earshot" (which is obviously meta-commentary on Faith) _is_ actually pretty astute. Both on Iago's and Faith's roles in the story.

_BUFFY: He, um, he does things because he, he enjoys them. It's like he's not, he's not really a person. He's, a, the dark half of Othello himself.  
TEACHER: Yes, and doesn't that also explain Othello's readiness to believe Iago. Within seconds he turns on Desdemona. He believes that she's been unfaithful. And we're all like that. We all have our little internal Iagos, that tell us our husbands or our girlfriends or whatever, don't really love us. But you never really see what's in someone's heart. ("Earshot")_

But of course, in theatre (or TV) that's exactly what you see. It's remarkable how many of Shakespeare's 400-year-old tragedies, written in a supposedly simpler time, centuries before Freud, to be played at matines before illiterate labourers, can easily be read as psychological dramas; the secondary characters are used to illustrate the internal struggle of the main characters, occasionally to the point where one could easily argue, based on Shakespeare's text, that it's really all in Hamlet's or Othello's head. (The RSC production of _Hamlet_ , starring David Tennant, played that up beautifully, by the way; the entire stage was surrounded by mirror surfaces, so that when the ghost leaves the bedroom scene and Hamlet runs after him, there's suddenly just a mirror image of Hamlet where the ghost stood seconds earlier... Patrick Stewart playing both the Ghost and Claudius put an interesting spin on Hamlet's Oedipal issues, too - "the counterfeit presentment of two brothers" indeed.)

Anyway, back to our show. The big Othello reference comes in s4 of _Angel_.

_ANGELUS: Othello and Desdemona. My favorite couple. Oh, wait, Desdemona wasn't in love with the other guy. So much for stand by your man. ("Soulless")_

And yes, it is a little bit iffy; we've got an interracial couple in Gunn and Fred, so let's compare them to Othello and Desdemona, where the easily fooled black guy is made to doubt his devoted white wife. It's a bit like if they'd had Ira Rosenberg's only daughter quote Shylock when she extracts her pound of flesh from Warren. And obviously, that whole did-Willow-kill-Warren mess is not in any way similar to...

 _PORTIA: Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge, to stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death._  
_SHYLOCK: Is it so nominated in the bond?_  
 _PORTIA: It is not so express'd: but what of that? 'Twere good you do so much for charity._  
 _SHYLOCK: I cannot find it; 'tis not in the bond. ("The Merchant of Venice")_

...moving right along. There is an explicit Shylock reference in an earlier episode, though:

_MS MILLER: 'If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?' Okay. So talk to me, people. How does what Shylock says here about being a Jew relate to our discussion about the anger of the outcast in society? ("Out of Mind, Out of Sight")_

In _The Merchant of Venice_ , Shylock blames everyone else for him being an outcast and eventually tries to get revenge by carving them up with a knife. Yes, Marcie, we see what you did there.

_XANDER: Yikes. The quality of mercy is not Buffy. ("I Only Have Eyes For You")_

_PORTIA: The quality of mercy is not strain'd. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ("The Merchant of Venice")_

In short: "To forgive is an act of compassion, Buffy. It's, it's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they need it." Though one might argue that by modern standards, Giles seems a bit less hypocritical than Portia.

Where was I? The apparent iffiness of using an _Othello_ reference for an interracial couple, right. But of course, let's not forget who's saying it: Angelus. He's, well, evil. It's a meta-reference; the character is using the reference with the assumption that Gunn will get it, that he will be offended by it, and that he will follow the script – or at least do something interesting. Angelus, after all, does things because he enjoys them. See, this is why a Shakespeare reference works: people know it, either first-hand or through any of a million other influenced works. By having a character in story A make a reference to the well-known story B, it carries with it the implication that the story of A might continue to bear some similarity to B; and by using it in a setting as cleverly (or smart-assly) almost-metafictional as the Buffvyverse, the references work on _both_ the characters and the viewers – either by creating an unspoken expectation which can then be either followed up on or subverted ("oh, this is sort of like in _Romeo and Juliet_ , and we know what happens there, don't we?") or by saying it out loud and having the characters react to it:

_SPIKE: Well, not exactly the St. Crispin's Day speech, was it?_   
_GILES: We few, we happy few..._   
_SPIKE: ...we band of buggered. ("The Gift")_

_HENRY: We few, we happy few, we band of brothers: For he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap... ("Henry V")_

You _might_ argue that Spike "shedding his blood" (and tears) for Buffy in "The Gift" is what "gentles his condition" enough to become a full-fledged Scooby. As for the gentlemen in England still a-bed, well, Buffy sent them packing in "Checkpoint."

Now, if I were to make a wild guess, I'd say that Joss' favourite Shakespeare plays are _Romeo and Juliet_ (young love – or two young persons' naive idea of love - gone disastrously wrong because of their different allegiances) and _~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play_ (the thirst for more power corrupts in the face of ambiguous prophecies).

Of course, in any love story (especially any adolescent love story) with complications, there's going to be comparisons to _Romeo & Juliet_. Hey, don't blame me, it's the law. But at least Joss had the good grace to a) acknowledge and play off the similarity, and b) remember that _Romeo & Juliet_ is a _tragedy_. (Seriously, few literature-related things piss me off as much as people referring to R &J as if it were a fluffy feel-good story about the power of love.) First the heroine seems to die, then the hero dies, and then the heroine miraculously returns to life only to hold his dead body in her arms – and then dies herself. That's _Romeo & Juliet_, but metaphor it up a bit, and it's "Fred dies, Wesley dies, Fred seems to return to watch him die, Fred turns into Illyria for (presumably) ever." But above all, while there are few explicit references, there's tons of _Romeo and Juliet_ subtext in Buffy and Angel's love story (and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in Buffy and Spike's). Two people from different ~~families~~ sides of the struggle between good and evil who fall for each other and end up almost destroying each other. That would make Jenny Tybalt, I guess. This is perhaps the most obvious one – fittingly, considering the Shakespeare quote, from the episode where Angel decides to leave Buffy. Whedon (or OK, Marti Noxon) does a fine job of boiling down a rather lengthy discussion into a few short sentences, but it's still recognisably the same scene – which is then followed up with Angel leaving town. Though unlike Romeo, he manages to get poisoned _before_ he leaves.

 _ANGEL: I think maybe you should go, huh?_  
_BUFFY: Nooo... must be a few more hours before sunrise._  
 _[Buffy gets up and walks to the window. When she pulls back the blackout curtain, it lets in a blast of sunlight directly onto the bed. With an exclamation, Angel rolls out of bed away from the light, apparently unharmed. Buffy pulls the curtains closed suddenly.]_  
 _BUFFY: Ooh, sorry. I guess it's later than we thought. ("The Prom")_

_JULIET: Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day: It was the nightingale, and not the lark, that pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear; Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree: Believe me, love, it was the nightingale._   
_ROMEO: It was the lark, the herald of the morn, No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks do lace the severing clouds in yonder east: Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. I must be gone and live, or stay and die._   
_JULIET: Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I. It is some meteor that the sun exhales, to be to thee this night a torch-bearer, and light thee on thy way to Mantua: Therefore stay yet; thou need'st not to be gone._   
_ROMEO: Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death; I am content, so thou wilt have it so. I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye, 'tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow; Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat the vaulty heaven so high above our heads: I have more care to stay than will to go: Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so. How is't, my soul? let's talk; it is not day._   
_JULIET: It is, it is: hie hence, be gone, away! It is the lark that sings so out of tune, straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps. Some say the lark makes sweet division; This doth not so, for she divideth us: Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes, O, now I would they had changed voices too! Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day, O, now be gone; more light and light it grows._   
_ROMEO: More light and light; more dark and dark our woes! ("Romeo And Juliet")_

Ah yes, the light and dark theme. Ever notice how often that's brought up in connection with Buffy and her lovers – ~~including~~ or for that matter Faith, as per the above Othello quote?

_SPIKE: You see ... you try to be with them, but you always end up in the dark with me._

Kind of fitting for a series about good and evil, the blurry line between them, and the occasional need to embrace one in order to fight for the other. But also for the eternal conflicts of love, of trying to know another person; there are always going to be places they've gone that you can't go, things about you that they don't fully understand. Which isn't to say that relationships can't work out, just that it takes work and a realisation that the other one isn't always who you expect them to be.

Speaking of darkness, relationships, and prophecies, there are quite a few references to _~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play_ in the text:

_GAVIN: It was a technicality, sir. Darla died during childbirth.  
LILAH: Dusted during childbirth is more like it. According to our sources she staked herself, leaving the baby alive and kicking but never actually born. Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd. ("Dad")_

_MACBETH: I bear a charmed life, which must not yield to one of woman born.  
MACDUFF: Despair thy charm; and let the angel whom thou still hast served tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd. (" ~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play")_

And of course, Connor (who as Lilah notes is most definitely not of woman born) is the one who ends up killing the seemingly unkillable Jasmine, though at least he doesn't have to dress up in twigs to do it. One might also note that the whole _~~Macbeth~~ Scottish Play_ theme of prophecies coming back to bite you in the ass and fulfilling themselves more or less defines _Angel_ s3-s4; not to mention that it's Angelus' murder of Holtz's children that sets the whole thing in motion – not unlike what happens to poor Macduff.

On a somewhat more far-fetched note, there are several episodes in which Buffy is in imminent danger of losing herself to her own demons ("Oh, darkness, I feel like letting go") and it's made pretty clear that the only one who can cure her is herself; "Anne" and expecially "Normal Again". Buffy needs to drink the medicine that's going to cure her of her delusions, but won't because she hates what her life has become and prefers to run away. (Incidentally, does Gertrude know her cup is poisoned when she drinks it? In the 2008/2009 _Hamlet_ , she definitely does.) But anyway, the relevant ~~Macbeth~~ Scottish Play quote:

_MACBETH: How does your patient, doctor?_   
_DOCTOR: Not so sick, my lord, as she is troubled with thick coming fancies that keep her from her rest._   
_MACBETH: Cure her of that. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart?_   
_DOCTOR: Therein the patient must minister to himself. (" ~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play")_

(Willow, of course, might easily have answered Macbeth "Oooh, great idea!")

So if Lady Macbeth is Macbeth's dark half, then who is Lady Macbeth in the Buffyverse, eh? As Buffy herself points out in "Earshot", there's something Shakespearean about Faith (though in classic _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead_ fashion, she doesn't seem to know it herself). You might even argue that there's a slight _King Lear_ feel to her awakening in "This Year's Girl", with the rain and the scream and the imminent madness and doom... though personally I'd say that even Shakespeare knew he was simply using a rebirth/baptism metaphor; one of those cases where Shakespeare didn't so much _invent_ a plot device, merely understood what made it tick and milked it.

In "Bad Girls"/"Consequences", however, the reference is so obvious that they even mention it in the DVD commentary. First, let's take the scene where Faith is scrubbing the blood off her top, and contrast it with this:

_LADY MACBETH: Out, damned spot! Out, I say! (" ~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play") _

And... um... no, seriously, this is NOT coincidence. Really, it isn't.

_FAITH: Okay, this is the last time we're gonna have this conversation, and we're not even having it now, you understand me? There is no body. I took it, weighted it, and dumped it. The body doesn't exist. ("Bad Girls")_

_LADY MACBETH: Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out on's grave. (" ~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play")_

_FAITH: What if he was? You're still not seeing the big picture, B. Something made us different. We're warriors. We're built to kill. (...) We are better! That's right, better. People need us to survive. In the balance, nobody's gonna cry over some random bystander who got caught in the crossfire. ("Consequences")_

_LADY MACBETH: What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? (" ~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play")_

Of course, Faith's role – especially in these two episodes – is to tempt Buffy; to assure her that it's OK to want the power, that might makes right, etc. The dark half. Incidentally, Lady Macbeth is eventually driven to madness and suicide by the guilt over what she's done. Just sayin'. And speaking of Faith and _~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play_ , she's awfully fond of knives, isn't she? And of course Buffy ends up using Lady MacFaith's knife when she almost becomes a murderer.

_FAITH: This is a thing of beauty, boss. ("Choices")_

_MACBETH: Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. (" ~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play")_

There's more than one Lady Macbeth in the Buffyverse, though:

 _MOTHER: Ever since the day you first slithered from me like a parasite..._  
_WILLIAM: What're you s—_  
 _MOTHER: Had I known better, I could have spared myself a lifetime of tedium and just... dashed your brains out when I first saw you. ("Lies My Parents Told Me")_

_LADY MACBETH: I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums and dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this. (" ~~Macbeth~~ The Scottish Play")_

And once again, as with Angelus and Gunn, you _know_ that Spike gets the reference. He's a Victorian poet, after all, and he's been known to drop all sorts of little Shakespeare lines. If you really want to look for similarities, you could argue that his fondness for Hamletian phrases like "that's the rub", "mortal coil", etc fits nicely with the Olivier-blond hair. But of course, for that to be more than just a far-fetched coincidence, Spike would have to... I dunno, want to kill his stepdad, have an *ahem* inappropriate relationship with his mother, see ghosts, contemplate suicide, angst about his purpose, have an insane would-be nun for a girlfriend and occasionally go mad (or to England). And come on, what would _Buffy_ have been like then?

_SPIKE: Gaaah! What the bleeding hell is wrong with you bloody women? What the hell does it take? Why do you bitches torture me?_

_HAMLET: Frailty, thy name is woman!_

But while Whedon is fond of using Shakespeare, he never (or well, rarely) rips him off completely. As in all Whedon productions, there's always a subversion coming. After all, what's the point of merely repeating Shakespeare? What's the point of just using him as a source of storytelling tricks? Joss isn't banking on his viewers not recognising Shakespeare's plots, quite the opposite. While it's certainly not necessary for the viewers to know Shakespeare in detail – or even to know that some of the more familiar quotes and plot twists were invented or popularised by Shakespeare – he is expecting the borrowed lines, situations and character moments to be just familiar enough to go towards building an expectation of what's going to happen (for the characters, or for the audience) which he can then play off and use as he sees fit to tell his own story.

Because it's remarkable how often Whedon's Shakespeare references turn out differently than they do in Shakespeare. Fred isn't completely "the sweetest innocent" and undeserving of Gunn's jealousy, but (presumably to Angelus' frustration) Gunn doesn't kill her. Faith doesn't actually kill herself, nor does she turn Buffy into a murderer (not for lack of trying, but fate intervened in Shakespeare's plays too). Buffy and Angel don't commit suicide. Buffy does minister to herself. Spike... dies at the end (of _Buffy_ at least) but unlike Hamlet, he doesn't kill everyone first. Illyria isn't simply a case of mistaken identity; the one who went to Elysium is gone forever. Buffy is the only one who doesn't triumph at her Agincourt. Of course, part of this is because the allegorical nature of the Buffyverse means that death isn't the only possible downer ending; "Becoming" is indeed a metaphorical suicide pact. But even then, the rest is never silent. The Buffyverse, after all, was specifically designed to thwart prophecies and clichés, whether the source is 80s horror movies or Elizabethan theatre. They might still find themselves in an old script, since people still face the same big questions; but unlike poor Rosencrantz  & Guildenstern, they're not bound to the ending. 

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in March 2009.


End file.
